'Well, Rosa, the gentle beggar-girl,—what of her?' said I.
'Eloped with one Corporal Trim,' answered Sir Charles.
'How shocking!' cried I. 'But Pamela, the virtuous Pamela?'——
'Made somewhat a better choice,' said Sir Charles; 'for she ran off with Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, when he returned to the happy valley.'
'Dreadful accounts, indeed!' said I.
'So dreadful,' said Sir Charles, bowing over my hand, 'that I trust they will determine you to marry Montmorenci. 'Tis true, he has lost two teeth, and you do not love him; but was not Walstein a cripple? And did not Caroline of Lichfield fall in love with him after their marriage, though she had hated him before it?'
'Recollect,' cried Cecilia, 'what perils environ you here. The baron is the first murderer of the age.'
'Look at yonder blood,' cried old Mortimer Delville.
'Remember the bandit last night,' cried old Lord Mortimer.
'Think of the tremendous spectre that haunts this apartment,' cried Lady Grandison.